Overruling Democracy - Hardcover

Raskin, Jamin B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415934397 ISBN 13: 9780415934398

Publisher: Routledge, 2003

Synopsis

The Supreme Court has recently issued decisions announcing that citizens have neither a constitutional right to vote, nor the right to an education. Conservative judges have continually disavowed claims to any rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. In "Overruling Democracy, " celebrated law professor Jamin B. Raskin, argues that we need to develop a whole new set of rights, through amendments or court decisions, that revitalize and protect the democracy of everyday life. Detailing specific cases through interesting narratives, "Overruling Democracy" describes the transgressions of the Supreme Court against the Constitution and the people - and the faulty reasoning behind them -- and lays out the plan for the best way to back a more democratic system.

About this title

About the Author

Jamin B. Raskin is Professor of Law at American University in Washington D.C. His articles have appeared in Slate, The Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, TheNation, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and many other newspapers, journals and magazines.

Reviews

Constitutional scholar Raskin uses the Bush versus Gore decision declaring Bush president as a reflection of both the continuing momentum of a rightward swing and the antidemocratic thrust of the U.S. Supreme Court. The use of the equal protection clause of the Constitution, designed to protect the newly freed slaves, as a basis for protecting Bush is symbolic of the inverse practices of the Supreme Court. States' rights, strict constructionism, original intent--these theories associated with the rightist ideologies fell under the political need to ensure that the "right" president was elected. This rightward shift is the consequence of a successful strategy to appoint conservative judges to the federal bench and has resulted in the denial of constitutional rights to an education and to public debate and a narrowing of privacy rights. Raskin argues that conservative jurists have taken an activist posture against popular democracy. In addition to challenging the propriety of this conservative judicial activism, Raskin articulates a plan for counterbalancing that activism. A worthy read. Vernon Ford
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Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415934397
• ISBN 13: 9780415934398
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304